Wednesday, October 31, 2007

500th post.

it is the last day of october already and the start of november brings with it the commencement of the ib exams; i shall not state the exact countdown to the first paper, but yes, it is very very near.

within these 2 1/2 or so weeks of study break, i've learnt several things that are crucial, and if ur in the IB programme you would like to know:
1. nothing can beat consistent work.
(a) 3 wks is not very short, but it isn't very long either. 3 wks can change some things, but most of subject knowledge is established during the 2 years.
(b) if you have a textbook for subjects like econs e.g. magee, ian dorton, pls go and read them no matter how taxing it is when you still have the time, not 3 wks b4 the exams like i did for units 2 and 3. yeah yeah people will be calling you mugger but just wait till exams for the last laugh.

2. after content mastery practice is the key.

3. if you really are at a loss for english paper 2, which i am now, reading sparknotes does help to some extent i feel. even if teachers tell you that ib markers are probably the ones who wrote sparknotes and don't rely on it blah blah blah, at the end of the day its better to write sense from sparknotes than irrelevant stuff from all those overtly chim siddhartha critiques.

a satirical musical composition to go. i've always wanted to do one of these to defy the rules in composition class. the best i could do was a compo with negative dynamics. this one is 6.02x10^23 times worse than mine.


for a bigger version see http://www.well.com/user/bryan/lament.html

Friday, October 26, 2007

when i opened the first page of readers' digest i got a shock when i saw this:
and it appears its been around for some time already.. since 1985!! so which one came first the airline or the pokemon? it looks like its the airline. lolol.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

well its been some time eh?


these few days have just been absolutely exhausting. you never know whether SEAB could be colluding with IB.. it appears the more recent maths papers both maths hl and psle often contain that questions that some students cannot do.. which require so called 'higher level thinking'.

physics mcqs are getting more and more tricksy by the years and the section Bs and option papers are like winning the lottery.. good for u if your answer is lucky enough to match that in the answer scheme.


and i'm at a loss for english paper 2.

just dying to get out of the house. content overload already.


one pic to go.. the only one that looks decent enough to be posted. and that perhaps carries with it the best memories of these 2 years.


Tuesday, October 09, 2007

it is just surreal that the last 3 days of formal lessons are coming to a close..

tml the last fried food day during school term the year 6s will experience. haha.

last day we will attend morning assembly and hear 'baris sedia', watch the flags being raised too slowly, and listen to devotion & announcements..

last 3 days priya will come into class and talk to us about admin stuff..

last 3 days we act crazy in our freezing 6.13 classroom..

and 2 more physics lessons.. must take picture haha.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

it's all samsara, i tell you

okay so prelim results today, and yeah i guess i did quite okay.

the biggest disappointment has to be english, with a 22 mark, 2 grade drop.

physics was good, managed to break 7 for the first time.. like.. ever :))))

the rest were okay i guess, and 37 really isn't a bad score at all, even though i was a bit disappointed at first. i really thank God for it, and i'm also thankful for friends like zeke who overwhelms me with his optimism. lol. and yes, we normal people have more capacity to improve than say someone with 41/42 :P

congratulations also to justin woo for obtaining the spot of the Highest Scoring Male for music, all you needed to do was to pass the written paper to get it. and don't tell me 'but' or 'i can't get a 7 for the real thing' cos i know you CAN.

and yes, despite the highly subjective nature of grading subjects like music (and english), music is so much more than grades and the way its subject to so many interpretations gives it its beauty. i now go into the music exam with an attitude that i like music and that's why i'm doing it, not to show i can be better than someone or get a higher grade than someone. i also have to admit that mrs li's encouragement of telling us to lift our chins up and push for the final and not care about the IAs that are already submitted makes sense.

we will never know how ib computes the scores for ANY subject; our school just uses percentages as an estimate. the interesting thing is that for me i havent been able to consistently score 40+ (actually i havent been able to reach it yet haha) but the thing is i've scored a 7 for each subject some time or another over these 2 years in the exams, just not all at the same time. and i guess these sorta grades really makes me put my trust in God to plan my revision schedule and guide me each step of the papers, cos i cannot say that i will be able to obtain a high grade on my own strength. and i guess every point above 40 would be a bonus for me when results come out next year.

here's a verse from ecclesiastes 4:4 that i think solomon was a real genius to think up (he was the wisest man who ever lived anyway) and i guess it really is quite true: 'And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.'

oh and mrs li has no sample scripts of how music students around the world answer their written papers, as in the strategies involved and stuff like that, so i guess we as the first batch would be doing a little trial and error with the way we answer those extracts that we have a measly 25mins to answer. but next year's batch would have a slight advantage - see who from this year scores well next year then can ask for tips lol.

Monday, October 01, 2007

happy childrens' day to one and all.